Glenn Thompson is a first-term, Republican Congressman who is going to be re-elected next week. When he returns to Congress after the election he will read into the Congressional a record the text of a scroll written by the Susquehanna Valley Regional Tea Party (SVRTP). This scroll . . .
* Has been signed by Representative Thompson
* Contains all of the points of the Downsize DC Agenda
I met Representative Thompson when I spoke to the SVRTP this past weekend. Mr. Thompson shook my hand and pledged that, when the new Congressional term starts in 2011, he will introduce . . .
* The Read the Bills Act
* The One Subject at a Time Act
* And the Write the Laws Act
Plus, he’s already one of 70 co-sponsors for the Enumerated Powers Act.
Well, my heart skipped a beat when I heard it.
But the good news doesn’t stop there! A candidate for Congress in a neighboring district, Tom Marino, has also pledged to introduce all of our bills, and to co-sponsor the Enumerated Powers Act.
I haven’t yet met Mr. Marino, but I have a copy of the signed pledge he submitted to the SVRTP.
Marino, another Republican, is leading in the polls, even though he’s the challenger. It’s a Republican district currently occupied by a Democrat who is expected to lose to Marino.
There are two things to note about this good news.
First, the Downsize DC Agenda is starting to make real progress
We already have 19 candidates (not counting Thompson and Marino) who have pledged to introduce at least one of our bills — 18 of these have committed to support all of them. These candidates are from the states of . . .
* Colorado (6)
* Delaware
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Maryland
* North Carolina
* Ohio (2)
* Oregon
* Tennessee (2)
* Washington
* Utah
Two candidates from this list stick out because they have a real chance to win their races . . .
Dr. William “BJ” Lawson
He was a DC Downsizer before he announced his run for the 4th District, North Carolina, U.S. House seat. BJ has an internal poll showing that he’s in a dead heat with the incumbent.
Dr. Rand Paul
He would introduce our bills in the Senate, and he currently appears to be more than five points ahead of his opponent.
Second, this recent success demonstrates some of our most basic strategic concepts.
It’s very simple — politicians respond to their constituents. If they’re not responding to YOU then that only means that YOU are being out-competed by some other interest group.
Other groups are applying more pressure than you are.
Really, that’s all there is to it.
This is why I think the SVRTP is the greatest Tea Party in the country . . .
* They’ve not permitted themselves to be divided or co-opted by partisan political campaigns.
* They firmly believe that they don’t exist to support candidates, but that candidates should instead support their issues, such as the Downsize DC Agenda.
* The SVRTP asks for what IT wants, direct to the politicians, and NOT filtered through the media and elections.
In short, the SVRTP follows precisely the strategy upon which DownsizeDC.org consistently relies.
The Downsize DC approach works!
In fact, we contend that it works better than anything else ever tried.
And it works at far less expense and effort than any other approach.
So, just imagine what we could achieve if we had more people, and more money. I promise you, for just what gets spent on a single, winning Congressional campaign, we could start to move and shake the entire country.
Really. Truly. Because changing the world is easy, not hard. The hardest part, by far, is getting people to realize how simple it is, so that they stop banging their heads against the wall doing hard, almost pointless things.
If you like what we’ve helped to achieve through our work with the SVRTP, then please contribute so we can do MORE!
It really is very simple. What we’re doing works, even though we have almost NO FUNDING. More is possible, IF YOU WANT IT.
To build momentum and take full advantage of this great news, we start with needs for . . .
* One $5,000 partner
* One $2,000 investor
* Three $1,000 contributors
* Five $500 donors
* And scores of supporters at other amounts
We also need 100 new monthly pledgers.
And if you can’t contribute right now (even if you can), please share this good news with others.
* Forward it to friends
* Post it on your blog
* Tell your local talk show host
* Tweet it
* Post it to Facebook
And when you do, encourage people to sign up for the Downsizer-Dispatch, because remember, we can’t do this alone. This good news should be the start of a growth spurt for the Downsize DC Army.
2011 can be our breakthrough year, but only if we can start the year on a roll. Will you make that happen?
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.